The "Fast Pay" pilot program includes 118 stores across the Coles Supermarkets, K-Mart, Target and Officeworks brands. Under the trial, Coles has simply tweaked the protocols of its payment systems, allowing customers with magnetic stripe cards and chip cards to swipe or insert the card to pay, without verification, for payments under $35. It is not the same as the contactless card system that Woolworths plans to roll out, which Coles' terminals don't support.

"From our perspective, it doesn't impose additional security concerns over what's out there today. The security is no different than the security we have in place," Swansson said.

The payment head added that any losses resulting from fraudulent transactions is usually covered under Visa, MasterCard and American Express' no liability fraud coverage, meaning that losses incurred by fraudulent payments will be reimbursed.

"Card suppliers are confident it won't create a whole lot of unauthorised transactions," Swansson said, adding that no new payment hardware was installed to handle the trial.

"We're keen to understand how customers react to the service ... we've had quite a lot of positive feedback," Swansson added.